National Geographic Photographer Shooting with the Nokia Lumia 1020

Are there any Nokia Lumia users out there that would like to comment on their results with the 41 MP PureView camera sensor?  After watching this video presentation, it's pretty tempting.  The new iPhone is about to be released and my plans are to get one, but after watching this I'm going to give it some consideration.

Art of Mob - Launching Under a New Name

Welcome to Art of Mob!  My new blog home.  When I started this blog last year, I intended it as an online journal to follow my own iPhone art adventures, but just over a year later it has evolved into something else entirely...it's no longer iART but rather the focus has shifted to highlight the work of artists worldwide, along with interviews, tutorials and app reviews.

At the risk of confusing some of my readers and losing a few, I've moved to this new location. I'll be blogging here at Art of Mob. I hope you'll bookmark the new location and follow along.  I've imported all of the posts from iART CHRONiCLES, so you can still continue to read them here.  I'll be checking all the links over the next week or so to make sure they're all working properly.  iART CHRONiCLES will automatically redirect to Art of Mob after 30 seconds.

Thanks to all who have supported me and hopefully I can bring you more interesting content from the world of mobile photography!

Featured Mobile Photographer - Nico Brons

Chances are if you are reading this interview, it is because you are an iPhoneography buff. Whether you are just beginning, or an advanced artist, this form of expression has captured your attention. One of the people who ignited that interest for me is Nico Brons. It is therefore a huge honor for me to present this feature which explores his work and process.

Help Me Feel Alright © Nico Brons

G:  What is your name and where do you live?  

N:  My name is Nico Brons and I live in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. Amersfoort is a nice town in the middle of the country. On Instagram you can see some images from this beautiful city with hashtag #amersfoort_nico.

G:  How did you get started with mobile photography?

N:  In early 2009, I saw some websites (flickr) with incredible images. I could not believe they were made by an iPhone. But they were! From that moment on I wanted to make such images too. I bought an iPhone 3Gs and started with smartphone photography. You can also make calls with it, but I used it more for photography!

Back to Black © Nico Brons

Children of the Night © Nico Brons

G:  What device do you use?

N:  I started with an iPhone 3Gs, but since December 2012 I work with an iPhone 5.

G:  Do you have a traditional photography or art background?

N:  I started with photography when I was about 17 years old. I lived near a military airfield and I was photographing airplanes. Nothing spectacular or with art in mind. Later on, I used my camera mostly for holidays and family.  In 2004, came a great change in my photography and in my life. I bought a little digital camera, an HP 935. From that moment on I could manipulate my images in an easy way and I discovered a completely new world. Later I upgraded to a Nikon D70, D80 and I now work with a Nikon D700.

I have no art background, but it looks I had some little talent. Now I’am a professional photographer and I work for companies and individuals. My mainstream is photographing people.  In February 2011, I begun studying photography at the photo academy in Amsterdam and hope to graduate in December 2013.  For some assignments at the academy I used my iPhone and they were well received by the teachers. It is the image what counts and not the equipment.

Egg Mania © Nico Brons

Pacific Standard © Nico Brons

G:  Who or what inspires your work?

N:  I get inspired by many things, but mostly by music, books, movies, painters and other artists. I will mention some examples:

Music; Tom Waits, Black Keys, Nick Cave, Rammstein and many many others.

Books: for example Marvel Comics and other comic books.

Movies: Science Fiction and animation movies. (like Pixar movies)

Painters and artists: Salvador Dali, Rene Margritte, James Ensor, Max Ernst, Picaso and others.

Photographers: Joel Peter Witkin, Roger Ballen, Ed van der Elsken, Robert Frank, Robert Mapplethorpe, Anton Corbijn and many others.

Inemokh © Nico Brons

Nobody Knows 01 © Nico Brons

Nobody Knows 02 © Nico Brons

Nobody Knows 03 © Nico Brons

G:  Do you shoot with the native camera app on your phone?

N:  I shoot a lot with the native camera. For a few months I have also been shooting with an Olloclip. In addition, I use Hipstamatic, SlowShutter, Kitcam. Mostly the native camera is enough for me and my second choice is Hipstamatic.  

G:  Do you plan your shoots with a specific idea in mind?

N:  Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If I work on a series, then I do have a specific idea. Also for individual images I sometimes have a plan in mind. The best ideas I get at night when I cannot sleep. But I love to experiment and then I let myself be guided by the moment of time and place. I let go and edit what comes to mind. Often I work intuitively. I can work for hours or even days at one image. It must be perfect for me and there I fail a lot. I try everything out, which keeps me inspired.

Pim © Nico Brons

Still Life - Vase © Nico Brons

G:  Your work includes everything from rich, textured landscapes to abstract portraits.  Is there a particular style you prefer?  

N:  That’s a little problem, I do sometimes do too many different things. At the photo academy in Amsterdam, the teachers warned me about this. I am drawn to many styles. But I love photographing people the most and for my iPhone work I focus mainly on abstract portraits.. As said earlier: my mainstream is photographing people.

G:  Do you begin editing a piece with the end in mind or does it evolve as you work with it?

N:  I love to experiment and let my intuition do the work. Most of the time I let my subconscious mind guide me. Sometimes it's have and half. For example, the project “The Eye” is partly idea and partly experiment and intuition  Sometimes I have a end result in mind, but the finished piece can be very different from my original idea.

The Eye © Nico Brons

The Big Mouth © Nico Brons

G:  What are you favorite apps for editing or shooting?

N:  My favorite shooting apps are the native camera with Olloclip and Hipstamatic. Besides them I use some other apps - SlowShutter and some others. When it comes to editing, well that's another story!  I mix many apps together. I try them all in a manner of speaking. There are a lot of photographic apps on my iPhone. But there are a few workhorses to mention:

Filterstorm

Snapseed

DynamicLight

Image Blender

Moku HD

Photocopier

Mextures

  

The Road to Mrs. Johnson © Nico Brons 

The Woman With...© Nico Brons

G:  I discovered your work while visiting The Mobile Arts Festival Los Angeles in 2012. The particular piece that caught my eye was "Rosa".  Have you exhibited your work elsewhere?  

N:  “Rosa” is a real woman and many people like the editing I have done on that piece. I feel honored you like the image too. I had four pieces at the Mobile Arts Festival in Los Angeles. I got good reviews on “The Ballerina”, also part of the exhibition. I have had exhibitions with iPhone Art in the Netherlands and Belgium. In my hometown, Amersfoort in 2012 there was a great photo festival and I was there with 50 iPhone images for a few weeks. I am pleased to say that it was a great success. In 2013, I had an exhibition in Ieper, Belgium. At  this moment I have ten iPhone works on A2 format in a design shop in my hometown.

Rosa © Nico Brons

Ballerina © Nico Brons

G:  I am honored that you would give us an exclusive first look at your new series The End (below).  What is the meaning behind this series?

N:  It is about a vision of the End of the World after an atomic bomb.  All buildings are destroyed and there are no people anymore. It is a view of a nightmare from me. I hate war and violence.  It scares me. There is a lot of misery int he world right now - many people are very intolerant of one another. My worries and fears are the influence behind this series.  There are a total of six images - three are shown here.  

The End 01 © Nico Brons

The End 02 © Nico Brons

The End 03 © Nico Brons

G:  Anything else you'd like to add?

N:  I want to thank all the lovely people who visit my work on the internet and I want to thank you all for all the lovely comments and likes. From my side I see a lot of great great work from other iPhone artists. I can not mention them all as there are too many and I would not forgive myself if I forgot to mention one! And finally I will thank Geri Centonze for asking me to do this interview.

Find Nico:  iPhone Work / Non iPhone Work / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter / iphoneart / Flickr / pixelsatanexhibition (search Nico Brons)

All images in this feature are copyrighted property of Nico Brons published on iART CHRONiCLES with the consent of the artist. 

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Painterly Mobile Artist - Wayne Greer

Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Wayne Greer.  When I contacted Wayne for this feature, he humbly said he is just a beginner and felt he had a lot more to learn than to share.  Well, if this is what Wayne has created when he's just starting out, I can't wait to see how his work evolves!

The Painterly Mobile Art Flickr group is now at 156 members and growing each week.  Everyone who visits has commented on the high caliber of work being submitted through this group.  I hope you'll take time to explore Wayne's work as well as the other members - I'm certain you'll be inspired!

The Artist - Wayne Greer

My wife and I live in Wichita Kansas. I actually have no background in art or photography. I bought an iPhone back in December and took snapshots here and there, but didn't use an app on a photo until March of this year. I saw some photographs by Gianluca Ricoveri and was blown away not only by his talent but by what was possible with the iPhone  Since then I've worked to improve.  I really love landscapes and try to find subjects and effects that aren't simply "pretty", but are emotive on some level. I love that the iPhone has made photography accessible to "average Joes" like me.

The Work

Sunflowers © Wayne Greer

Wayne's Commentary

I shot this in a roadside ditch in east Wichita.  I used 645 Pro, K11 film with warm #81 filter. It was my first time using anything other than the stock iPhone 5 camera and I was impressed with how good the raw image looked. I then used Snapseed to adjust sharpness and structure. Then I went to Laminar Pro to crop and adjust lighting. I then played around with Mextures until it looked right. 

Find Wayne:  iphoneart / Instagram / Art & Frame / Flickr

Links to apps mentioned:
645 Pro
Snapseed
Laminar Pro
Mextures

The Whole Story - Photo by Geri Centonze and a Challenge!

The beauty of having your own blog, is that every once in a while you can get away with featuring yourself! Interested in submitting a smartphone photo of your own for a chance to be featured? Get more information here. 

  

The Photograph

The Whole Story

As I was looking through my Instagram feed this morning, I came across a post by @kelbelle110. Kelly had just received a handwritten letter from her daughter and she was over the moon. There's something magical about snail mail.  Immediately my mind went back to the time when my father was alive. We had difficulty communicating verbally sometimes but whenever either one of us had something we wanted the other to "hear" we would write it down. I have several memories of incidents that were resolved through letters.  Once, as a teenager, I pulled up too close to the curb on an outing with my Mom, and scratched my Dad's cherished hubcaps!  My mom's advice was to say nothing, but the guilt got to me so that night I slipped a note under my parents' bedroom door with all of the money I had (which was only about eleven dollars and some change).  I told him that I would repay him as soon as I had enough money.  When I got up the next morning, the note was slipped back under my door, along with the money and it said "Your honesty means more to me than a scratched hubcap. Love, Dad".  

The photo above is of one of the many letters Dad wrote to me when I was living in the Cayman Islands. In 1984, he and my Mom were packing up to relocate and he must have had a moment of nostalgia as he sorted through the "stuff" they had collected along their life's journey.  I still cherish this letter and every once in awhile I read it. In part it said:

"While sorting through the items we want to sell during our garage and moving sale, I came across your little tap dance shoes, Geri. I looked at these shoes and immediately my thoughts rolled back to the slap, back, step, routine you and Diane use (sic) to do in the front entry marble with those little tapeshoes. My eyes filled with tears for just a moment. Now you have two boys of your own."

Almost 30 years later those two boys are now grown up and married. One has two daughters and the other has a new baby on the way. Time is moving at breakneck speed! Today I challenge you to handwrite a letter to someone you love. Put a stamp on it and send it through the mail - you will be surprised at the big impact of this small gesture.

The Photographer

Geri Centonze - You probably know a bit about me if you're a regular reader of this blog, but if it's your first visit, I am a former sketch card artist turned mobile photographer. I have been totally consumed by this new mode of expression and started this blog to chronicle the journey. It turns out that I'm just as passionate about sharing the work of others, so this space also features artist interviews that highlight some of the very talented men and women I've met through social sites like Instagram and Flickr.

Find Geri:  Instagram / Twitter / Flickr / iPhoneArt / Pinterest / iPhoneLife

Oggl Update Allows Importing From Camera Roll

I've said it before - I've never been much of a Hipstamatic fan.  I love the results other people get, but I don't have the patience to switch lenses and films to get the look I want.  I also enjoy the process of editing my images after I've captured them.  There was a lot of buzz when Oggl debuted, and although I downloaded it, I never explored the app until the most recent update.  The ability to import images directly from my Camera Roll got me interested, and after experimenting for just a few minutes, I can see that it may be added to my primary app arsenal!

Oggl also allows you to import all of the purchases you made through the Hipstamatic app, so you can use all of the lens and film combinations you already own to vary the results on your photo.

I used a portrait from morgueFile to experiment on because I didn't have anything interesting in my Camera Roll.  Below are just some of the results.  Click image to enlarge and view combinations used.

To import your photos, open the Oggl app and on the lower left corner, tap on the square frame.  Next tap on the + sign in the top right corner.  Your Camera Roll will pop up and you can select as many images as you like and then tap "Import Photos".  It's that simple!

So what do you think?  Are you a Hiptsta fan or not?

Artist of the Month at iphoneart - Louise Fryer

Each day an Artist of the Day is chosen at iphoneart. At the end of the month all of those chosen for Artist of the Day vote for Artist of the Month. This month I was in the running! The results were announced today:  Artist of the Month Louise Fryer. First Runner-Up butterflyblue and Second Runner up Geri Centonze! Thanks to my peers who voted - I am honored for this recognition and proud to be among you.  

The Whole Story - Photo by Caroline MacMoran

We all have special people and special memories attached to those people. Caroline MacMoran tells The Whole Story behind this lovely image. Interested in submitting a smartphone photo of your own for a chance to be featured? Get more information here.   




The Photograph

The Whole Story

This is my grandmother's flapper dress from 1927. Many years before she died, she gave it to me along with her gorgeous wedding dress. I have always loved it, and it makes me feel close to my grandmother. It is pink and beige with black and white beads. A real stunner of a dress; I can only imagine how beautiful my grandmother looked. I love to put it on and spin around--it also makes me feel like I can connect with a time in my grandmother's life that was even before the birth of my mother. I don't wear the dress much anymore--the material is so fine and it is beginning to deteriorate, but I love to just look at it!  

Workflow - I don't entirely remember the process of editing this shot, but I know I used Snapseed and Scratchcam.

The Photographer

Caroline MacMoran - I live in Philadelphia, PA with my partner and our 11 year old son. I am a nurse and a psychotherapist and work in full time private practice with my 3 colleagues at The Brandywine Center in Wilmington, DE. I have always been interested in art and photography, and particularly love iPhoneography for its ease and the potential to create while holding it in the palm of your hand. I am very interested in self-portraiture and the way it helps me understand myself and my place in this world, and have been taking the year-long NowYou workshops led by Meredith Winn (@camerashymomma) and Kristin Zecchinelli (@mainemomma). I am also continually inspired by Karen Divine and her incredible art, and recently participated in a 5-day workshop she led in Santa Fe.


Find Caroline:  iphoneart / Flickr / Instagram 

FREE Preview Issue of iPhotographer Magazine

It was the big news of the weekend in the world of mobile photography, the preview issue of iPhotographer Magazine (for iPad) hit the Apple Newstand and it's FREE! This abbreviated issue, about one-third the size of a full issue, is packed with interviews, videos, tutorials, tips and more. The slick interface as well as the interactive features make it not only informative but fun to read.

From the welcome video by Editor-in-Chief Knox Bronson, to the exciting previews of the next issue, each page is loaded with interesting information and beautiful images. iPhotographer Magazine will make a great reference tool for the beginner as well as the more advanced user, as some of the best in the field of iPhotography share their technique and workflow.

Here's a teaser of what you'll find:

Featured Artist - Maia Panos
The Frog Pond - A monthly compendium of delight
Appstrology by Elodie Hunting
Around the World With Natali Prosvetova
Master Class with Ashley Callaghan
Introduction to The Secret Smartographer
Instagramers Curated by Lanie Heller
Olloclip review by Jack Hollingsworth
Expert advice in the Ask Nicole section
iPhone Abuser of the month Petr Palan (who also happens to be the Publisher!)
The Video Page with a Tilt Shift overview and tutorial

Press Release:  

Publisher Petr Palan of Fast Track Magazines and Editor Knox Bronson of P1xels—The Art of the iPhone have joined forces to launch an exciting new magazine, iPhotographer, a lens focused on the vibrant and exciting world of mobile photography in a beautiful, fully-interactive, multi-media publication for the IPad. Along the way, they have assembled a stellar crew of writers, editors, curators, artists, and photographers in order to produce an amazingly original, informative, and extremely entertaining magazine.

The preview issue is generous in its content, about a third of the size of the coming regular issues, to reveal some very clever features unlike anything else in the traditional photography, mobile or otherwise, magazine format, such as The Secret Smartographer, Appstrology, Mike Sweeney's Playground, and much much more.

Beautiful regional and city galleries from around the world, video interviews, audio to delight and educate, detailed tutorials, expert gear reviews by award-winning photographer and gear-hound Jack Hollingsworth, an advice column, the best of Instagram galleries in every issue. Add to this the always amazing art selection and curation, along with informative articles, at times off-beat and funny, always geared to enriching your life as both a maker and lover of great pictures, and you have the most exciting photography, art, and lifestyle magazine on the planet.

As we take pictures with our phone and shares them with friends, family, and the world, we are creating a revolution, a global phenomenon unprecedented in human history. iPhotographer Magazine strives to capture and focus that amazing energy every month.

Three core concepts guide everything iPhotographer brings to its readers: CREATIVITY—SIMPLICITY—INSPIRATION. 

Along with the unspoken one: FUN!

iPhotographer's goals are simply to  enliven, illuminate, and create a monthly snapshot of the global moment in iPhone photography: what people are doing with their phones, their amazing pictures, and the technological developments enabling it all.

The magazine is aimed at the global community … taking pictures and bringing out the magic in them … for ALL levels of interest, experience, and expertise.

Every month it will feature art and artists, tips and tricks, the newest tools, hardware and apps, in capturing the magical moments of life.

iPhotographer Magazine is for anybody who loves taking pictures with a phone, anybody who loves beautiful pictures and is interested in the people making them, anybody who is interested in the cutting-edge technology of photography, and anybody who is interested in cultural movements such as the uploading of one half a billion pictures a day to social networks! 

A SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION OFFER included in the free Preview Issue for a limited period! Subscribe now and save 60% on a standard annual subscription.

Painterly Mobile Art Monday - No. 11

All of the styles are so different and all so wonderful!  Here are more featured images from the Painterly Mobile Art Flickr Group.  Thanks to all the artists who participate each week.

To view more works by the artist, click on the image to visit their Flickr page.

Red Fishing House by Wayne Greer

Peaceful Morning by Roland Boesiger

Be still, my soul by Clint Cline

Fairy Meadows by Rob Pearson-Wright

Ere II by Federica Corbelli

The Task of a Lifetime by Anne Highfield

Evening on the Dordogne, Sainte-Foy-la-Grande by Joseph Cyr

Over and Under by Brett Chenoweth

First Day by Jeri Hurd

God and the artist by ergraphic 2011 

Nocturnal by Kristin

Skin Deep by Brent Mosley

Waiting for a better day by Aldo Pacheco

Us by Geri Centonze

The Reticent by Pu the Owl

Notre Dame by Mike Bowers

The Dog Walker by Christianna Pierce

Touches me by Yannick Brice

"Time to leave," said the son.  "Are you prepared for the cold?" said I...Then, the memory of my father laughed at us both - by Alain Vincent

The way we were by just dragonfly

gimme' some funky blues by frptlady...the next chapter

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air." Ralph Waldo Emerson by Cindy Patrick